Historical Accuracy (Q&A):Did J.D. Vance grow up in Middletown, Ohio?Yes. When J.D.'s grandparents moved there from a picturesque mountain town in Northern Kentucky, they were leaving behind coal country for the hope of a better life. The Hillbilly Elegy true story reveals that by the time J.D. was born, Middletown's steel mill was no longer thriving and the town was gradually heading toward economic despair.
Young J.D. Vance is portrayed by actor Owen Asztalos (left) in the movie. The real J.D. Vance as a child is pictured on the right.
In interviews, J.D. has mentioned his mother surviving a heroin overdose. In the book, he goes into detail with regard to friends and other people in the town overdosing.Did J.D. really risk losing a job at a prestigious law firm by going home to help his drug-addicted mother?No. In the film, a day before interviewing for a summer associate job that could fund his next semester, J.D. Vance is called home to deal with his mother who has just survived a heroin overdose. As stated in the prior question, in his memoir, Vance does talk about getting a call from his sister Lindsay toward the end of law school at Yale. However, he didn't go home until several weeks later, after graduation. J.D. went home to help get his homeless mother off the street and back on her feet. Him rushing home and potentially losing a law clerk job appears to be fictional.
In his bestselling book, J.D. Vance goes into more detail about his mother's struggle with addiction and the epidemic of drug use in the Rust Belt communities.
In the book, J.D. talks about her flipping on a dime like Amy Adam's character does in the movie. She could be a playful, upbeat mama one moment and a raging, out-of-control monster the next. The movie doesn't make clear whether she had a personality disorder prior to becoming an addict, and Vance's memoir seems to attribute most of her changing personality to drug addiction and her ever-changing, often tumultuous relationships.
Actress Amy Adams (left) portrays Bev in the movie, and the real Bev Vance (right) pictured in the early 2000s.
The next man in J.D. Vance's mother's life was a truck driver named Bob Hamel, whom he describes as a stereotypical hillbilly. J.D. witnessed his mother and Bob engage in verbal abuse, screaming matches, and physical violence (they set ground rules that Bob couldn't hit first). Bev and Bob wracked up a considerable debt on things they didn't need, including new cars and a swimming pool. Bev entered into numerous affairs and turned to drugs and alcohol. They eventually separated. By that time, J.D.'s grades had begun to suffer. He put on weight, was plagued by severe stomachaches, and had trouble sleeping.Did J.D. Vance have a revolving door of "stepdads" come in and out of his life as a child?Yes. This is portrayed accurately in the movie, perhaps even downplayed somewhat. The real J.D. Vance says that he had 15 different "stepdads" as a child. This included the different husbands and boyfriends that moved in and out of Bev's life. -Uncommon Knowledge
Actor Owen Asztalos (left) as young J.D. Vance in the movie and the real J.D. Vance as a child (right).
Yes. The J.D. Vance true story confirms that he watched his mother be arrested more than once. The most significant of these arrests took place when he was twelve. "I said something, or some conversation topic really ignited her temper," J.D. recalled in an interview with Megyn Kelly, "and then she just sped up, and she just kept on saying, 'I'm just gonna crash this car and kill us both. I'm gonna crash this car and kill us both.'" When she pulled over and started to try and beat him, J.D. jumped out of the car and ran to a nearby house for help. Recognizing he was in distress, the woman who answered called the police. Bev kicked in the woman's door and dragged J.D. out onto the front lawn as he screamed for help.
The police arrived and he watched his mother get hauled away in a police cruiser. "Honestly, I just felt relieved. In that moment, I just felt relieved," recalled J.D., "and I thought to myself, alright, I'm gonna live another day. That's how terrified I was." Sitting in the back of a police car, J.D. waited for his sister Lindsay (pictured below) to arrive and rescue him. The arrest resulted in the family being entered into the system, which meant the start of mandated family counseling and social worker visits. Following Beverly Vance's arrest, J.D. began living with Mamaw off and on.
J.D. Vance's sister Lindsay Vance in the movie (left) and when she was younger in real life (right).
Yes. When J.D.'s mother, Beverly Vance, was spiraling out of control with addiction, his grandmother (Mamaw), who is portrayed by Glenn Close in the film, stepped in and raised his older sister Lindsay and him. J.D. describes his grandparents as filling in the gaps when his mother was unfit for the role.
Glenn Close (left) as Mamaw in the
Hillbilly Elegy movie, and the real Mamaw (right), whose actual name is Bonnie Blanton.
The oldest boy didn't like Bev and fought with her constantly. J.D. fought with him in defense of her. While he was exploring a small greenhouse, he stumbled upon a nearly full-grown marijuana plant. Later, he experimented with a stash of Ken's weed that Ken's son had found. At the time, J.D., who was 15 and a sophomore in high school, was also drinking alcohol somewhat and had abysmal grades. By that point, his sister Lindsay had entered into a successful marriage and was no longer around for him to lean on. After several months, his grandma (Mamaw) began to realize what was going on, including that his mom was using drugs again. The J.D. Vance true story confirms that Bev showed up asking J.D. for his urine so that she could pass a drug test. It prompted Mamaw to make the decision that J.D. would live with her permanently.
Actor Gabriel Basso (left) as J.D. Vance in the movie, and the real Vance (right) as a teenager.
Mamaw and Papaw encouraged their children and grandchildren to live better lives than they had lived. Like their daughter Bev, they had issues with domestic violence, substance abuse (Papaw's alcoholism), and teen pregnancy. They always hoped that the next generation would do better.
It's worth noting that J.D.'s mother, Bev, had encouraged academics when he was young, having been the salutatorian of her high school class. Bev never went to college, however, because J.D.'s older sister Lindsay was born just weeks after she graduated from high school. Bev later went to a local community college and earned an associate's degree in nursing, paid for by Mamaw.Is J.D. Vance's girlfriend, Usha, based on a real person?Yes. Usha (Freida Pinto) is based on J.D.'s real-life girlfriend, Usha Chilukuri, an Indian-American woman who he met while attending Yale Law School. In 2014–15, Usha clerked for then-judge Brett Kavanaugh. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in the 2017–18 term. J.D. and Usha were married in 2014 in Eastern Kentucky. They currently have two sons, Ewan (born in 2017) and an infant.
Usha Chilukuri and J.D. Vance on their wedding day in 2014 in Eastern Kentucky.
Yes. In the movie, Mamaw (Glenn Close) is seen watching Terminator 2: Judgement Day for the umpteenth time. She tells J.D. that everyone in the world falls into one of three categories. A person is either a "good Terminator, a bad Terminator or neutral." In the book, it is J.D., not his grandmother, who talks about feeling like he was being "chased by the bad terminator or protected by the good one." He also talks about his Mamaw's love of the HBO series The Sopranos.
Did J.D. Vance really join the military?Yes. The Hillbilly Elegy true story confirms that J.D. Vance enlisted in the Marines after graduating high school. He served in Iraq, performing media relations tasks. In his memoir, he talks about his time in the military as being the first time he felt like an adult, largely due to the fact that he could help take care of his family members instead of them taking care of him.
Actor Gabriel Basso (left) and the real J.D. Vance (right) in the early 2000s.
In a flashback in the movie, we observe Mamaw (Glenn Close) setting her abusive drunk husband on fire. Papaw is in front of the Christmas tree and "O Holy Night" is playing on the radio. This is taken almost directly from the book. Mamaw warned Papaw that she'd kill him if he ever came home drunk again. After he came home drunk a week later and passed out on the couch, Mamaw got a can of either gasoline or lighter fluid and poured it all over him, lit a match, and dropped it on him. J.D.'s eleven-year-old aunt hurriedly put out the fire and saved his life. Papaw suffered only minor burns.
Did Mamaw say things like "Kiss my ruby-red a**"?Yes. A Hillbilly Elegy fact check confirms that this is taken straight from J.D. Vance's memoir. He talks about the phrase being part of his grandmother's "trademark vitriol."
J.D. Vance's grandma, aka Mamaw, is portrayed by Glenn Close (left). The real Mamaw is pictured on the right in the early 2000s.
In the movie, we see this in flashbacks but it is downplayed somewhat in order to paint Glenn Close's character as the movie's moral center. In the book, J.D. writes about the damage that Mamaw and Papaw wrought on their children, including J.D.'s mom Bev. He discusses Papaw's battle with alcoholism and Mamaw's desire to later repair the damage.
Mamaw had been in an abusive relationship herself. In the book, J.D. does not know if Mamaw was abused as a child, but he talks about her desire to help poor, abused, and neglected children. She would buy school supplies and shoes for the neighborhood's poorest children. She even dreamed of becoming a children's attorney. J.D. ponders where these desires came from, wondering if she herself was abused as a child.
J.D. Vance Interviews & Related VideosPeer deeper into the true story behind Hillbilly Elegy and broaden your understanding of J.D. Vance's life by watching the interviews featured below.